Remote sensing of Piedmont wetlands using rule based modeling techniques

Abstract

Wetlands continue to be lost in the state of Georgia. Consistent and timely inventories are needed to gauge and study these losses, but an affordable solution for statewide inventorying has yet to be found. Reliance on the National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) is not sufficient, since that project, though accurate, is considerably behind schedule due to inadequate funding. In order to complement the NWI, a protocol was developed for the Piedmont region of Georgia using rule-based modeling techniques and 1970’s Landsat MSS imagery to produce a historical inventory of wetlands. The final classification was then accuracy assessed to determine the protocol’s usefulness, and a preliminary loss analysis was performed, which showed that wetlands are still being lost on the Georgia Piedmont. Results indicate that this protocol is a reasonable alternative to the manual approach employed by the NWI, but that the level of detail will suffer.